Tag Archives: Herman Cain

News

The top article on National Review is about Herman Cain

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Here’s the story on National Review. Everyone is going ga-ga for Herman Cain!

The first few lines:

‘How many of you think Herman Cain won the debate?”

Twenty hands shot up.

“Well, we can stop right there,” said Frank Luntz, a fast-talking political consultant, as he paced before a Fox News focus group on May 5. “This is unprecedented.”

Luntz pointed to the top row, looking for answers. One by one, South Carolina Republicans in trucker caps and business suits raved about Cain. After watching the 65-year-old spar with fellow GOP presidential contenders, many were itching to join his ranks.

“He’s a breath of fresh air,” explained one gentleman. “He is the godfather of business sense, and he can attack Obama well,” declared a middle-aged lady. Others nodded vigorously.

Luntz was stunned. “[Cain] was not a real candidate before tonight,” he exclaimed. “What happened?”

[…]Cain, a former corporate executive and talk-radio host, did more than that; he won over a slew of Republicans pining for a 2012 candidate. Though he was standing among better-known Republicans such as Tim Pawlenty and Ron Paul, Cain’s rich baritone, business smarts, and sharp one-liners connected.

It’s easy to see why: He was frank and refreshing. But more notably, on a stage full of state and congressional leaders, Cain used his outsider status to his advantage. “Most of the people who are in elective office in Washington, D.C., they have held public office before,” he noted during one exchange. Then, with expert comedic timing, he quipped: “How’s that workin’ for you?”

[…]Since the debate, Cain has seen his fortunes rise. The latest Zogby poll shows him trailing only New Jersey governor Chris Christie in popularity among GOP-primary voters. In Washington State over the weekend, Cain won a Republican straw poll.

Online, the buzz is palpable. He was a trending topic on Twitter during the debate; on Facebook, he has 84,000 friends, a number that’s growing every day. Conservatives may not know much about him, but they like what they are hearing. As Rush Limbaugh remarked on his radio show after the debate, “Herman Cain made me think I was listening to me in every answer.”

And my favorite part:

Cain’s thirst for self-improvement was evident at the start. He grew up in Atlanta, the son of working-class parents — his father a chauffeur, his mother a domestic worker. They had always dreamed of owning their own home, not living in a “half-home,” an attached unit. They achieved that goal. They wanted their two sons to graduate from college. Both did.

Cain saw his parents’ hard work as a simple, inspirational example: Work hard, trust in God, have no fear, and you can achieve the American dream. To him, it is more than a political idea; it is central to who he is as a citizen, and as a potential presidential candidate. Once he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Morehouse College in 1967, Cain was determined to map his own path to success.

The early motivator, and Cain says it unabashedly, was wealth. Working as a systems analyst for the United States Navy in Dahlgren, Va., Cain made $7,729 a year. At age 23, he made a personal goal to one day earn $20,000. As he settled into his position, he noticed that advancement — and an increased salary — would require a graduate degree. So he searched for the top computer-science program he could find, predicting that future jobs would require such skills.

Cain selected Purdue University in Indiana. He was not exactly eager to return to the classroom, but he knew that he needed to learn more and improve his résumé. After surviving a string of difficult courses and exams and earning his master’s degree in 1971, he returned to the Navy full-time and was granted a GS-13 position. His new salary: $20,001.

The rest of the article explains how he rose through the ranks at Pillsbury, Burger King, and Godfather Pizza. My goodness, this man is just an ordinary man who came from nowhere to achieve everything. He is everything that Republicans represent. His life reflects the American Dream. Please, let this man save us from the RINOs: Romney, Huckabee and Gingrich.

Notice the part where the article mentions that Cain is a Baptist preacher. He is not afraid to talk about his faith in public.

Here’s a 1-minute introduction to Herman Cain:

Also, here’s a 30-minute CPAC speech by Herman Cain. Here is video of the South Carolina debate, and the focus group response. My friend Robb posted the video of Cain beating up Bill Clinton, which is referenced in the article.

Videos

Video of the first Republican presidential debate in South Carolina

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Herman Cain
Herman Cain

The first GOP presidential debate for 2012 was held in South Carolina the evening of May 5, 2011. Participants were Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, businessman Herman Cain, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson.

And here’s who the focus group picked as the winner – almost unanimously: (H/T The Other McCain)

Herman Cain!

You can watch the full debate below. The debate was moderated by some of my favorite Fox News people: Juan Williams, Bret Bair, Chris Wallace and Shannon Bream. This is the most even-handed questioning I have ever seen in a public debate, especially Chris Wallace.

Part 1 of 4:

Part 2 of 4:

Part 3 of 4:

Part 4 of 4:

Here’s the latest poll by PPP, a Democrat polling firm, from 5/5 to 5/8:

Romney Huckabee Trump Palin Gingrich Paul Bachmann Pawlenty
18 19 8 12 13 8 7 5

Herman Cain, Mitch Daniels and Rick Santorum had no score.

My candidate is Michele Bachmann. I don’t like any of the others in that poll. I absolutely cannot stand Romney, Huckabee, Trump, Gingrich, and Paul. I don’t think Palin should run. Pawlenty is highly qualified, but not conservative enough for me.

A 30-minute Herman Cain speech is here.

Videos

Video of Allen West’s keynote speech at CPAC

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Here’s the video for Allen West, who gave the concluding speech.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Here’s an article about Allen West’s 2011 CPAC speech.

Excerpt:

First pillar: Effective and efficient conservative government.

  • He quoted Thomas Jefferson: “Most bad government results from too much government”), which is why next week Congress will cut 100 billion dollars of spending off of the federal budget.
  • Making people more dependent on the government has to end, so hard decisions must be made. “We cannot continue on with the policies of behavior modification through excessive taxation and over burdensome regulation…and that’s why we’re going to be cutting from the EPA.” (wild cheering)
  • If health care is so great, then someone explain to me why over 200 Democrat political groups are going to the President and asking for waivers.” Here was a great quote: “I say this to the President: The good things in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: closing the doughnut hole, making sure that we take care of people with the preexisting conditions, keeping our young kids on our insurance, I can probably fit that in five to ten pages. It’s the other two thousand four hundred ninety pages with eleven new taxes, a hundred fifty nine new government agencies and beauracracies, and sixteen thousand new IRS agents, that the United States of America does not want!” (standing ovation)
  • He mentioned the financial meltdown in 2008 and blamed it (rightfully so) on government interference with the private sector.
  • He talked about reforming the individual tax code, cutting the corporate business tax rate from 35% down to 20%, eliminating capital gains taxes and dividends taxes, capping federal spending at 18-20%, developing a balanced budget amendment, and eliminating “redundant, failed, and duplicitious federal government programs and agencies.”

Second pillar: Peace through vigilance, through resolve, through strength.

  • He mentioned the famous Edmund Burke quote, one of my personal favorites: “All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
  • He quoted Sun Tzu: “To know your enemy, and to know yourself, and to know the terrain or the environment, in countless battles, you will always be victorious.”
  • And then he made the most important statement of the night: “Peace begins with courageous leaders who are willing to identify and define our enemy, and their objectives, because political correctness has no place in our national security strategy.” (the crowd screamed and another standing ovation ensued)
  • He said he was appalled that the Fort Hood shooting was treated like workplace violence.
  • He said “A new America, a secure America, means that we can ill afford to have a twenty-first century Sir Neville Chamberlain moment.”
  • He said “And yes, yes I do have a problem with granting American Constitutional rights to terrorists while we attempt to and have imprisoned our own warriors for killing terrorists.” (another standing ovation – there were so many during this speech)
  • Here’s another money quote: “The dawn of a new America means this: Secure our borders and enforce our laws. Recognize the emerging threats on the Korean peninsula. Recognize the threats that are coming out of South and Central America. And confront the radical Islamic non-state, non-uniformed belligerents who transit freely across borders, killing and promoting a seventh century ideology that is anathema to the values of America and to Western civilization.”
  • He said that we must never forget that Israel is our greatest ally in the Middle East, and vowed that “I shall never let Israel down.”

Third and most important pillar: Never abandon our values.

  • “We must honor our language and realize that it is the most important, most basic and common bond which makes us an American.”
  • He said we shouldn’t allow multiculturalism to “grow on steroids” and make American culture subservient.
  • He said he doesn’t support late term abortion or abortion as birth control because he doesn’t believe that having a baby is punishment (reference to an Obamateurism).
  • He said “We must hold sacred the privilege of the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman.”
  • He said we had to reclaim our “Judeo-Christian faith heritage.” He quoted John Adams: “We have no government armed with power, capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
  • He said “This is not about a separation of church and state. It is about making sure that we do not separate faith from the individual. You must never forget that the American motto is In God We Trust.” (standing ovation)
  • His next statement almost got a standing ovation from me: “We welcome the beliefs of others in America, but our coexistence must be based on a simple premise: when tolerance becomes a one-way street, it leads to cultural suicide. And American cultural values shall never be subjugated to any other as long as I have air in my lungs.”

His closing thoughts started with a quote from George Washington: “We are either a united people or we are not. If the former, let us in all matters of general concern act as a nation which has national objects to promote and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it.” He quoted Abraham Lincoln: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” He discussed how he grew up in the Atlanta area and went into the military, and then ran for political office as a public service to all Americans. He said “This is what Abraham Lincoln said. ‘Be sure you put your feet in the right place. Then stand firm.’ So as you depart here today from this great hall, from this great gathering of conservatives, this is the commission that I send you out with: Stand firm, for this is the dawn of a new America. God bless you all, God bless America, steadfast and loyal. Thank you.”

And here’s Herman Cain’s speech:

Cain is probably running in 2012 and West will go in 2016 or 2020.